When I was growing up, one sign of an imminent family holiday was the variety pack of single-serving cereal that would appear in the grocery cart come Saturday morning.

Now remember, this was Australia circa the 90s, not America circa time immemorial. Therefore the variety pack had nothing as wondrous to children’s eyes as Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or Reese’s Puffs. No, all my brother and I had to choose from were Rice Bubbles, Sultana Bran, Nutri-Grain (“Ironman food!”…thank you blatantly sexist advertising), Sustain, and one lonely box of Coco Pops.

One lonely box of Coco Pops.

One little lonely 30g box of Coco Pops. For an entire fortnight at Merimbula. With two kids in the family.

Would you like to know how my mother, my dear devoted darling mother, solved this riddle? This conundrum? This exercise in futility?

She’d choose one morning to be the Special Morning, and my brother and I would have to share the 30g box of Coco Pops. Eked out to a full bowl each via the addition of some scattered miserable Rice Bubbles.

And you wonder why I stopped taking Maths in Year Ten. Because those holiday mornings taught me that Maths is pain and the taste of soggy, half-strength Coco Pops, that’s why.

If only ten-year-old me at Merimbula had, back then, had access to a 20cm square baking tin, a bag of marshmallows, and the regular-sized box of Cornflakes that my mother would occasionally dip into for her breakfast.

I would’ve made this Cornflake Coconut Marshmallow Slice, and by golly! So much better than Coco Pops! By golly! My mother would not have been able to stop me.

(Side note: She totally would have stopped me. But, then again, my brother and I usually got to have waffle cones of ice cream at the beach several times each trip, so I wouldn’t have pouted for long. High five for sky-high scoops of honeycomb!)

Directions

Grease and line a 20cm/8-inch square baking tin. Toss cornflakes and coconut together in a large bowl.

2.

In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the butter until starting to foam (mmm, almost-browned butter goodness). Add marshmallows, vanilla, and cinnamon, stirring until completely melted.

3.

Reduce heat to very low and stir in the cornflakes and coconut until completely coated in marshmallow mixture.

4.

Tip into prepared pan and, using either the back of a spoon or your asbestos hand, press down firmly and evenly. While still warm, scatter over the chocolate chips. Let the residual heat soften them, then spread the chocolate over the top in a ramshackle artistic way that makes you feel like an artiste. With an e. Pronounced "arteeeeeeste".

5.

Set aside to cool completely, then cut into squares and store in an airtight container. Lasts a few days.

Note

If the slice has cooled too much to melt the chocolate, pop the tin under a broiler in ten second spurts, until softened enough to swirl around. Like an arteeeeeeste.

Haha! You’ve brought back so many memories, but just try to imagine having to share that Coco-pops box with two other siblings – aargh!
By the way I should introduce myself to you – hi, I’m Liesl & I love reading your blog 🙂

Aw, I’d forgotten all about those little mini boxes of cereal! I thought they were so adorable and that they’d be perfect for my play kitchen, where I spent lots of time. However, my parents wouldn’t buy them, because they were much pricier than just buying one box of cereal. Besides that, I wasn’t a big cereal fan anyway. I liked the boxes much more than I liked the actual cereal inside. Then I was in the hospital for a month when I was 9 or 10, and they had those boxes of cereal as part of my meal plan. So I saved them to play with at home.

Oh my! That takes me straight back to my childhood memories! Not that we ever had to share the Coco Pops. I loved the Sultana Bran, and yes, as a kid who had porridge for breakfast everyday, Sultana Bran WAS a treat. I’m not sure it’s the cereal varieties or just being able to have your own mini cereal box that was more special. We are on holidays at the moment at the South Coast and have just tried the latest honey joy with chocolate coating offering from Kelloggs. It’s nothing like how you make them yourself and I’ll be sure to give yours a go when I get home!

Even in the US there were always the boxes of cereal nobody liked and we were not permitted to open the next carton of boxes until all the cereal was gone. OR.. the unopened carton got hauled back home.

I remember those variety packs. 30 grams was nowhere near enough food though, even when I was a child.
I ate 1/4 of the huge family pack of Cocoa Pops for breakfast – and I was a very thin child so it was encouraged. 😉

We had those little variety packs on special occasions too but there were five of us so just imagine the odds of getting that box of cocoa pops! And it wasn’t as if we ever had cocoa pops in the house at any other time of the year. I grew up with the choice of rice bubbles, cornflakes or weetbix. And we were told to be grateful because we had ‘choice’. Your marshmallow/cornflake combo looks really good xx

Hahaha great story and I can relate…because growing up my parents would buy the variety packs and the only thing I really liked was Frosties hehe do they still have it now? Use to love it and actually I don’t mind Coco pops hehe

I don’t remember the cereals in the package as much as the process of making the tiny box into its own dish. Does that still work that way? There was something quite entertaining about creating a bowl from a box…even if it leaked.

Well, I’m much older than you so maybe they no longer are but when I was a kid (back in the Dark Ages) you could make a bowl out of the box using the perforated marks to open the side of the box like a window and pour the milk on the cereal right in the box. But as noted they could leak. HA Maybe they decided that was too much and removed that option in later years. I remember our variety being more interesting too with corn pops and rice krispies and such. I know the cornflakes were the last to go but I remembered more than coco pops in the mix. Like Cracker Jack’s and the cooler toys we got in the box. Now the prizes are tiresome nothing but back when they could be pretty cool!

I always wanted those American snack packs of cereal, but then I’d get them and guarenteed would only eat one box and leave the rest. Oh how I HATED sweet cereals! BUT I loved rice krispie bars with gooey marshmallow so I accept this coco pops alternative. 😉

Yes, that brand of math sounds terrible! Fortunately as an only child, this wasn’t the kind of math I had to deal with often.

I loved Weetbix growing up, but that might be because my sweet-toothed Grandma taught me to make it with a good centimetre of brown sugar on top. As long as Mum wasn’t in the kitchen with me of a morning, I was set. 😉

Hah! I have a box of those mini cereals in my pantry RIGHT NOW. I always loved coco pops, but was mystified by Froot Loops which just tasted like sweet gross-ness to me. I never understood why other kids thought they were a treat.

It is almost scary how alike we are. My first draft of this post included a section about how repulsive Froot Loops are, and how even though they were technically a “treat cereal” to most, I would rather eat my own hair.

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About

Hannah. Writer, editor, firm believer in socks, gin, laughter, buttered toast, cheesecake, and semicolons. Currently back in Canberra after two years living in Canada; heart tingling to see what happens next.